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Public Prosecutor v B R Chaandrran [2006] SGDC 301

Suit No : DAC 57653/2005, MA 183/2006 Decision : 26 Dec 2006 Date Court : District Court Coram : Kaur Jasvender Counsel : Lee Cheow Han (Deputy Public Prosecutor) for the prosecution, Ramesh Tiwary (Ramesh Tiwary) and Ranjit Singh (Francis Khoo & Lim) for the accused

26 December 2006

District Judge Jasvender Kaur:

1 The accused was convicted after a trial of engaging in a conspiracy with one Mak Yew Loong Colin (“Colin Mak”) to arrange a contract for the acquisition of 20,000 AKMS rifles valued at US$3,400,000 (S$5,712,000) between 11 May 2005 and 13 September 2005 when he was not registered with Customs to broker in strategic goods, having reason to believe that the contract was likely to result in the removal of the 20,000 AKMS rifles from Bulgaria to Syria, an offence under section 6(1)(a) of the Strategic Goods (Control) Act (Cap 300) (“the Act”) read with section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). He was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. Against that conviction and sentence he has brought this appeal.

Prosecution's case

Undisputed facts

2 Between February/ March 2004 and September 2005, the accused was an operations manager at Dannhauser International Pte Ltd ("Dannhauser"). Dannhauser was registered with the Director-General of Singapore Customs to broker in strategic goods as required under Regulation 14 of the Strategic Goods (Control) Regulations 2004.

3 The accused and Colin Mak were not registered to broker in strategic goods.

4 On 14 September 2005 at about 2.25 pm, officers from the Singapore Customs, led by the investigation officer, Higher Superintendent of Customs ('HSC') Samadi Bin Aman (PW6), raided the office of Dannhauser at Kaki Bukit Road. The officers seized the computer used by the accused.

5 On the same day, at about 1.35 pm, SSC Chong Wei Hoong (PW4) and a team of customs officers raided the residence of Colin Mak. SSC Chong did an imaging of the hard disc of the computers found in the living room and the bedroom of Colin Mak.

6 At about 7.30 pm the same day, another team of customs officers accompanied the accused to his residence at Hougang Avenue 7 and seized his computer, which was in the living room.

7 Between 15 and 20 September 2005, SSC Pang Teck Loon (PW5) conducted computer forensics examination on the computers seized from the accused’s office and his residence. The e-mails and documents retrieved from the computer used by the accused at Dannhauser were admitted as exhibits P2 to P6 and P21 to P111. In particular, the following e-mails were retrieved:

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(a) An e-mail dated 11 May 2005 from Colin Mak to the accused stating the availability of 38,000 AKMS rifles from Bulgaria (Exh, P32);

(b) A proforma invoice no. 34889A dated 10 September 2005 issued by Protec Consulting Co. (“Protec”) to Al Thika Telecommunication Services of Jordan for the sale of 20,000 units of AKMS rifles at US$3,400,000 (US$170 per unit) and to be delivered from Bulgaria to Syria (Exh P21);

(c) A proforma invoice no. 34889A dated 10 September 2005 issued by Protec to Al Thika Telecommunication Services of Jordan for the sale of 25 units of industrial machinery at the price of US$3,400,000 to be delivered to Syria (Exh. P22); and

(d) A commission agreement dated 30 August 2005 between Protec, represented by one Tony Thille, the CEO of Protec and the accused, where it was agreed that the accused was to receive a payment of US$10 per unit (i.e. US$200,000) from Protec upon the successful delivery and payment of the AKMS rifles to Syria (Exh. P23).

8 Computer forensics examination on the images found in the hard discs of the computers seized from Colin Mak was conduct